Top Navy Officer Criticizes Plan to Cut Carriers

By ERIC SCHMITT,

Published: June 19, 1993

WASHINGTON, June 18—
In another public disagreement between the military and the Clinton Administration, the Chief of Naval Operations today criticized Defense Secretary Les Aspin's emerging plan to reduce the number of aircraft carriers to 10 from 12.

The Navy's top-ranking officer, Adm. Frank B. Kelso 2d, told reporters that the reduction would hurt the country's ability to respond quickly to regional crises and to provide a hedge against conflicts in peacetime. The Navy has 14 carriers in service; two are scheduled to be retired this year.

A high-level Pentagon panel last Saturday gave Mr. Aspin its vision for a smaller military, including a smaller fleet of Navy carriers. The panel included representatives of the service chiefs, but was dominated by senior Pentagon officials who argue that without a robust Soviet threat, the United States can afford to reduce carrier operations and substitute other forces in their place if needed.

Admiral Kelso took issue today with the idea that the world is a quieter place since the end of the cold war. He pointed to hot spots like the Persian Gulf, the former Yugoslavia and Somalia, where naval forces are deployed.

Asked if the 10-carrier plan was a "lousy" idea, the admiral said, "Yes, I'd prefer to stay at 12." He added: "The rationale is a judgment about whether we're going to need to have them deployed as much as I think they're going to be. What's going on in the world right now doesn't seem to tell me we're not going to use them, and the political leadership generally looks for them when a crisis comes."

Admiral Kelso's remarks today ran counter to recent efforts by the uniformed leadership to mute their disagreements with the President on issues like homosexuals in the military and budget cuts. But his criticism reflects both a continued general wariness over the Administration's plans, and anxiety in the Navy that the budget cuts may fall heavily on that branch.

Mr. Aspin is walking a tightrope between needing to shrink the military and not alienating the service chiefs.

Admiral Kelso's criticism of an Administration's plans is not unprecedented. Last year, Gen. Carl E. Mundy Jr., the Marine Corps Commandant, publicly criticized a plan by former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to shrink the corps to 159,000 marines by 1997. General Mundy ultimately prevailed; the Marine Corps will be reduced to 174,000. Adviser or Rabblerouser?

Admiral Kelso said he considered himself an honest adviser and not a rabblerouser. "My job is to represent and give the best advice I can," he said. "The way our system works is that you make your argument, you try to sustain it, and sometimes you do and sometimes you don't.

"From my standpoint, it's a question of risk and how you evaluate risk," he said. "The problem is that events of the world sometimes drive what you're going to do. It's not what you planned to do, it's what takes place."

When the Administration makes a final decision, Admiral Kelso said he will carry out that order, but until then he plans to lobby.

If forced to cut back to 10 carriers, the admiral said, the Navy would either have to reduce its pace of worldwide operations or lengthen the typical six-month tours that crews have.

During the Carter Administration, the Navy extended deployments to nine months and many sailors quit rather than be away from their families for that long. Navy officials have all but ruled out that option again. Cutting Coverage of Hot Spots

The Navy, however, is already beginning to reduce its coverage of potential hot spots. A Navy carrier has been in or near the Persian Gulf almost continuously since the Persian Gulf war. But the carrier Nimitz is now leaving the gulf and its scheduled replacement, the Abraham Lincoln, is off the West Coast, 45 sailing days from the region.

"A smaller carrier force might be less expensive to operate and maintain in the short run, but it would be at the long-term expense of being incapable of protecting United States interests," said a Navy document issued this spring, "Carriers for Force 2001."

At any time, about one-third of the carrier fleet is deployed, one-third is training and one-third is in port for maintenance. A carrier and its air wing cost about $450 million a year to operate.

The other armed services, especially the Air Force, which would assume many of the Navy's air missions if the number of carriers was cut, say the Navy is exaggerating its importance, and is issuing dire warnings to try to sustain its budget and force levels.